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New Pi record: 2.7 trillion digits, calculated on a desktop PC!
This is the first time ever that a standard PC has sat atop the pi calculation throne -- all prior records have been held by supercomputers with vast amounts of processing power. The machine used, a Core i7 running at 3GHz, would be completely unexceptionable if it wasn't for its 7.5TB of hard disk space. How much space does 2,699,999,990,000 digits take up I hear you ask? Well, only a terabyte it turns out -- the rest of his vast hard disk array must be used for something else...
It took Fabrice 131 days to break the record -- but considering the previous king (2.6 trillion) took just 29 hours using a supercomputer, you can expect a new pi master to appear sooner rather than later. It's simply a matter of being bothered enough to leave a computer on -- and yes, Mr Bellard intends to release his software in due course, so you too can crunch the digits of pi.
[via Neowin -- if someone wants to work out how much space 2,699,999,990,000 digits in a flat text file would actually use, do let me know in the comments...]
Comments
27
Subscribe to commentsMxxConJan 7th 2010 9:08AM
well, considering each digit is 1 byte :), then the file would take up 2,699,999,990,002 bytes (2 extra bytes in for "3.")
2,699,999,990,002 bytes = 2,514.57 gigabytes = 2.4556 terabytes
Sebastian AnthonyJan 7th 2010 9:11AM
That's what I was thinking... I couldn't get it anywhere near 1TB (as per the Neowin article)... so... yeah...
Maybe it's compressed...
basroilJan 7th 2010 6:04PM
Maybe, but if you are going to compute just digits, you can fit two digits per byte, since you only need 4 bits per digit (16 possible numbers is just enough considering you need 10 possible). So the total minimum space he would need is 1.228TB rather than twice that.
MxxConJan 7th 2010 11:06AM
maybe they didn't store every single digit but rather every other one, or just checkpoints every 100th
3tearJan 7th 2010 9:19AM
Did he find the universe factory?
http://xkcd.com/10/
Sebastian AnthonyJan 7th 2010 9:45AM
Old schoooool.
WiwiJan 7th 2010 9:40AM
It's 29 "hours" using a supercomputer, not 29 days, according to the Neowin link.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 7th 2010 9:44AM
Good catch, ta.
idiotJan 7th 2010 10:31AM
that comes out to:
225,903,614 pages or
451,808 reams or
45,181 boxes of 8.5"x11" paper, assuming you use Word, 8pt font, and minimum margins.
idiotJan 7th 2010 10:46AM
all of which would fill up 12,550 standard 4-drawer filing cabinets.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 7th 2010 11:07AM
Thank God for hard drives, eh? :P
RiveramaJan 7th 2010 10:33AM
Well, if you store in binary, i'll take 5 bits sets per digit: (each set storing from 0 to 9)
add one more digit for the 3:
2699 999 990 001 (5 bit) = 1,609,325 Megabyte =
1,571 Gigabyte = 1 Terabyte.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 7th 2010 10:40AM
Yar, that sounds more likely -- or as Basroil says up there ^, only 4 digits per byte = 1TB.
techpopsJan 7th 2010 1:53PM
(trying to fit in and appear smart)
So what kind of pi was it? Apple pi?
Sebastian AnthonyJan 7th 2010 1:54PM
Not even going to warrant that with a smile.
Curiously tho', no mention of the operating system used. I guess generating pi isn't really a very taxing task... it's probably a cross-platform algorithm...!
djoyner@gmail.comJan 7th 2010 3:21PM
Even more impressive is this guy (Daniel Tamme) who quoted Pi to 22,000 decimal places.
It took him 5 hours.
His web page is below.
He appeared on 60 minutes
http://www.optimnem.co.uk/about.php
Pretty amazing fellow who has somewhat conquered autism, or at least learned how to manage it.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 7th 2010 3:22PM
Hah... awesome!
I wonder if he did it from memory, or if he calculated it on the fly.
Marty K.Jan 7th 2010 4:46PM
Sebastian, you forgot to mention to most important detail. This guy broke the pi record on a desktop PC running LINUX, more specifically Fedora.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 7th 2010 4:49PM
I can see that in the Neowin comments now -- it wasn't when I wrote this.
But how do you know that for sure?!
Maybe it was on a machine running Windows 95.
(With some hack to address 7.5TB of hard drive space...)
Marty K.Jan 7th 2010 4:55PM
I know that for sure because I had read this several days ago. Straight from the horse's mouth: http://bellard.org/pi/pi2700e9/announce.html